There's lots in common between the two devices, but also some differences, some of which I would attribute to the different versions of Android. But I'd like to get a better understanding of how much of what I'm seeing/experiencing is from Android itself (regardless of version), and how much is a function of how the device maker has implemented it.

If I have two Android devices from two different manufacturers, each running the same version, would they work the same way, for example, when I go into settings? Are the differences between devices running the same Android version strictly in the hardware?

My frame of reference here is Windows, where the OS is unified and virtually identical across different hardware builds, but where a stock Dell (for example) can still differ from how I do things for myself from scratch.

Unless you are talking about a Nexus device that is running a "pure" version of Android (blessed by Google), then you are going to have massive differences between devices from different manufacturers, even on the same Android version.

Only the basic mechanics will be the same, like the concepts of the home button, back button, and menu button. The notification shade (the thing you slide down from the top of the screen) is basically universal. However, what's in it will vary widely from manufacturer to manufacturer (Samsung throws a ton of stuff in there). The manufacturers also like to tinker with the settings menus, even though they generally have 90-95% of the same settings, though with different wording.

This has both pros and cons since it provides choices for consumers to have different user experiences, but it also makes it difficult if you have to deal with devices from multiple manufacturers all the time and you have to keep adapting.

I've been using Android on my HTC Incredible via Verizon for a few years now. It's currently on version 2.3.4, which as far as I know is the latest version for this device.

You're running Sense, not stock Android, so the UI looks a lot different then other 2.3 devices. Furthermore, a lot of what you see isn't android, but rather proprietary software running on top of Android. Things like the dialer, contact apps, lock screen, etc are provided by HTC and not actually part of Android itself.

FWIW, you can install stock 2.3 on your device. I used to run it on that phone. 2.3 does not look all that much like 4.0 though. A lot changed between those two releases.

GeekGrrl wrote:

My frame of reference here is Windows, where the OS is unified and virtually identical across different hardware builds, but where a stock Dell (for example) can still differ from how I do things for myself from scratch.

On PCs, the hardware is standardized by using CPUs from the same few vendors, all using a BIOS/EFI. There is negligible difference between any two hardware devices aside from performance, power consumption, etc. In so much as a machine has different accessories attached to it, modular drivers can be used to isolate the hardware from the software using standards defined by MS, Intel, etc.

No such standardization exists for ARM. Different CPUs are free to use different ARM instructions, different memory mapping, different memory addressing, and there is nothing like a BIOS to standardize booting and initialization. So each OS you load on ARM is heavily customized for the specific hardware. Depending on the SOC vendor used (in your case, Qualcomm), the company making the phone may not even have started with the same Android source code (Qualcomm maintains its own branch of Android customized for its family of SOCs).

The concept of Android/AOSP is that you can build Android for any device by using device overlays for each build. These overlays specify compiler targets and contain the various drivers and proprietaries needed to get Android to run on said device. In practice it's not quite that simple, but close.

They've given me a much better foundation for making sense of the tablet market.

It's not that easy getting good hands on experience with them.

There's much I like about the VitalASC tablet (the display is v good), it seems fairly fast, and Wi-Fi is good when within range. But there's also something unfinished and a little sloppy about the UI. My experience with the HTC Incredible set my expectations for a touch device, and this is falling short in ways that could put it into deal breaker territory (despite being a recent/current version of Android compared to my phone.)

So it's back to tablet shopping before my return window runs out. Windows 8 and RT tablets are suddenly seeming attractive. Even though I use Windows 7 on my desktop and notebooks, I hadn't really considered a Windows tablet (probably because my Android phone experience has been a good one. But I see now that Android will have implementation variations that (I'm assuming) are greater than what I'd find between different Windows tablets (but that my familiarity w Windows would make it easier for me to figure out.)

Thanks again for the info. It's been helpful.... though I'll no doubt have followups!

They're a little more expensive than the tablet you're using now but the Asus Transformer TF300 is a heck of a nice tablet. It's been updated with Jelly Bean and, while not quite stock, you can turn off the Asus customizations if you wish. I used one for quite some time before swapping with a guy for his TF700, which has the best screen I've yet seen on any tablet. (Oddly the extra resolution made a custom app he had developed not work, thus his desire to swap for my old TF300.)

Anyhow, I've played with quite a number of different tablets and even ignoring the keyboard option, the Transformers are absolutely fantastic.

I am a diehard iPhone and ipad user, but if I had to make a change the only device I would consider is a Nexus 4 and 10. (Well, many not a 10. Android on tablets is pretty bad IMHO). Google's vision for the OS and polish is better then that of each individual little manufacturer.

The camera app in Sense is awesome. The one for Nexuses is very basic. The notification shade quick access to settings is really useful in TouchWiz. Then there's also the side by side multitasking in TouchWiz. Multiuser accounts was a TouchWiz thing too, I believe, before it came to the Nexus tablets.

With Windows desktops I could choose based on hardware and power, with the OS being a known quantity. The biggest decision was whether to buy an OEM box or do a custom build. The latter was work, but not that bad, especially since I relied on the Ars System Guides for reference, or took the recs of someone I knew and trusted. The end experience was always the same: the latest version of Windows, updateable at my discretion, running only chosen apps that were also updateable when I chose and that for the most part were backwards compatible.

Laptops seem to be more of a closed-box experience. But it was easy enough to either remove or bypass the OEM's customizations, or just wipe and do a Windows install from scratch, then download and install any necessary OEM drivers. I love my Toshsiba Satellite. And even the Latitude that wormed its way into my LAN was easy enough to de-Dell and make my own.

In reality, tablets might not be that different. But they seem much less straightforward. Maybe they inherited that from having evolved out of the mobile phone space, where the market is opaque and hyper hot-trend oriented. My HTC Incredible was a clean and full-featured introduction to Android. But I have little idea where the boundaries are between Android, HTC, and Verizon. I mostly like the device, but don't know who to blame for the things I can't stand (like the app that wants to run everytime I connect it to Windows; I suspect that's Verizon, just like the useless browser-like media explorer app that I somehow managed to disable on my laptop, but that still pops up on the desktop.)

Owning one Android tablet (the vitalASC ST0916) and playing with some in the stores, it's a much less professional and high end experience. They seem very barebones, but not in the good kind of way that a new custom Windows install does. These just seem like underdeveloped environments, especially compared to my mobile.

hestermofet wrote:

BryansAccount wrote:

Google's vision for the OS and polish is better then that of each individual little manufacturer.

Vision, maybe, but not polish. There are a lot of missing features in stock Android that the OEM customizations round out nicely.

I see how both of those can be true.

I've looked at Windows tablets. But the RT seems designed to pull me into MS's subscription-software scheme, with Office "included" -- but I have no confidence in how long it will continue working before I'm forced to upgrade or throw the thing away, and I don't trust MS on this one (and I'm not normally a MS basher.) The non-RT Windows option is attractive but it's way too easy to imagine finding out that full-Windows-on-a-tablet as a concept is not yet ready for prime time, whether it's a Surface or an OEM variation.

No fun all around.

Anyone with any experience with vitalASC tablets? I never heard of them before. The device operates fine, and has good wi-fi connectivity and good IO. But something feels off about it. Both the front and back cams are located in idiotic places, the documentation is all but nonexistent, and their name is just bad. Overall I suspect I've bought into a closed-box scheme, compared to what I'm used to with Windows (which is why I've never considered Apple products.) And my return window (with a likely restocking fee) is more than half closed.

Really? I use sense, touchwiz, blur et al and all I can think is how ugly and confusing they are. What do you see them adding? (Other then half decent exchange support, I will give you that!)

I find many of them less confusing than stock. They make a greater effort to ease user-friendliness, like by labeling buttons. Stock Android’s minimalist look is probably out of step with mainstream tastes, too. A bit cold. I’ll admit the skins aren’t as necessary as they were back in the 2.x days, when Android was pretty ugly. The stock Gallery app was hideous! I’ve never been a big fan of the camera app, either, even the current one. Sense has a nicer one.

There are other things. Sense is aggressive about closing background apps. That probably causes annoyances for some people, but I love what it does for battery life. My One S has 10% more battery capacity than my old Nexus S, but lasts proportionally longer than that; it feels like someone’s bothered to tune the phone rather than just throwing together hardware and software and putting it up for sale.

They're a little more expensive than the tablet you're using now but the Asus Transformer TF300 is a heck of a nice tablet. It's been updated with Jelly Bean and, while not quite stock, you can turn off the Asus customizations if you wish. I used one for quite some time before swapping with a guy for his TF700, which has the best screen I've yet seen on any tablet. (Oddly the extra resolution made a custom app he had developed not work, thus his desire to swap for my old TF300.)

Anyhow, I've played with quite a number of different tablets and even ignoring the keyboard option, the Transformers are absolutely fantastic.

Thanks for this recommendation. It looks nice and the price seems good for a dual cam 10 inch with docking option.

I've read some reviews (I think these were on Newegg) and some were complaining about the case cracking where the tablet connects to the docker. How much weight would you give to those concerns?

They're a little more expensive than the tablet you're using now but the Asus Transformer TF300 is a heck of a nice tablet. It's been updated with Jelly Bean and, while not quite stock, you can turn off the Asus customizations if you wish. I used one for quite some time before swapping with a guy for his TF700, which has the best screen I've yet seen on any tablet. (Oddly the extra resolution made a custom app he had developed not work, thus his desire to swap for my old TF300.)

Anyhow, I've played with quite a number of different tablets and even ignoring the keyboard option, the Transformers are absolutely fantastic.

Thanks for this recommendation. It looks nice and the price seems good for a dual cam 10 inch with docking option.

It's a heck of a deal, for only $400 right now. I showed a client the thing today and she had me find it on Amazon for her and ordered it on the spot.

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I've read some reviews (I think these were on Newegg) and some were complaining about the case cracking where the tablet connects to the docker. How much weight would you give to those concerns?

I'd consider them abuse, to be honest. I've had zero issues with any of my Asus products and I now have direct experience with several of their tablets; the TF300T, the TF700 now (for a week and a half or so) and the Nexus 7. While I treat my tech toys kindly, I also use them daily and throughout the day. The TF300 I had was in my possession for daily use for 6 months and it looked as good as new when I passed it off. I also have a couple clients who picked up the TF300T tablets. One's a locksmith and uses his all the time on the job with zero issues. I see stories like that and often think it's either a one-off or it's people picking them up and carrying them by the screen (tablet) or something. While the joint is certainly not intended to be used to carry the weight of the entire keyboard (I hate calling it a dock), it's pretty beefy and I'd think it would take a lot to really damage it.

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Any experience with the optional keyboard?

Quite a lot. I have the one for the 700 and had the 300 version as well for months. It's not a "real" keyboard, of course, but they're pretty darned good for a chicklet type device. Having a keyboard that adds hours of battery life is nice, too, rather than draining it as is common with Bluetooth ones. The only trouble I have is I have to disable the touchpad when typing anything significant on it, as I am with this post. I use a mouse, though, on the arm of the couch next to me and this is a non-issue. There's a button on the top row of keys for toggling the touchpad, among other things like WiFi, on and off.

I know I may sound like a fanboy but these are truly spectacular devices, IMO. I'm pretty darned picky about my own tech and have a low tolerance for having to kludge things in order for them to work. These things, at least in my experience, just work.

I've had an opportunity to spend some quality time with an Asus Transformer TF700, along with its keyboard. It is indeed a nice device. It seems reasonably and more than acceptably fast and responsive, when browsing, file managing, running Office-like apps, but still not blindingly so. And so, some questions.

When it comes to an Android tablet's CPU, memory, and other key specs, how would I relate those numbers to a Windows box? How much "computer" am I getting in this form factor at a given price point?

I know the components are optimized for power consumption. Is Android itself a light-power OS?

I think what I'm trying to get a handle on is, what kind of CPU and GPU would I need to have in a Windows box to get the same kind of performance I'm seeing in the the TF700?

And would I notice much difference between it and the lower powered TF300?

Heh, perhaps a little but only because I've found it to be a suitable device.

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When it comes to an Android tablet's CPU, memory, and other key specs, how would I relate those numbers to a Windows box?

You don't, exactly. The important measure is this: does it do what you need and in a reasonably fast manner?

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How much "computer" am I getting in this form factor at a given price point?

Plenty, in my opinon. Will it replace all need for a computer? No, it won't. Is it sufficient as a mobile platform, however? I believe so, for most folks.

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I know the components are optimized for power consumption. Is Android itself a light-power OS?

Sure. It is made for phones as well. That's part of why you get such a long battery life out of the system.

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I think what I'm trying to get a handle on is, what kind of CPU and GPU would I need to have in a Windows box to get the same kind of performance I'm seeing in the the TF700?

And would I notice much difference between it and the lower powered TF300?

I don't know that you can directly compare the platforms but I would say my TF700 is equivalent to an i3 at minimum and approaches my i5 system. The TF300 was noticably slower on heavy websites, etc.

I think the main benefit of the TF700 over the TF300 is the screen itself. The TF700 is 1920x1200 while the Tf300 is 1280 x 800 but that's not the only thing. It's the brightness which makes it easier to see in bright light combined with that which really makes it shine. It's just not even a competition between the two. The 700 is somewhat faster at 1.6 GHz vs 1.2 GHz with the same Tegra 3 quad core and that can make a large difference in games, I have found. I can't say if it makes much difference for you since your use case may be different than mine.

The TF700 also has Gorilla Glass 2, which by all accounts is a significant improvement. I still had Ghost Armor put on, but I'm a freak about that so YMMV. Other improvements are the front camera is 2MP instead of 1.2 and the rear facing has an LED flash. Overall, I would say that the TF700 is well worth the minor price difference.

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I hope those questions make sense.

They do. The only issue is where you're comparing the system to a full-blown PC. What I would say is that, for half the cost of a $1000+ Ultrabook computer, you get a system that performs 90% of the same tasks at an acceptable level of performance while being at least as portable, if not more-so. The fact that most threats online are targeting different OSs means that, if you aren't installing apps from pirate markets, you're pretty darned secure as well.

I've been trying various mobile platforms for well over a decade. I used to support PocketPC for a time while at MSFT and tried many of the PDAs of the era. I've owned, and used, Origami based systems (the Asus R2H), Netbooks (I owned an EEE PC 901 and an Acer netbook I forget the model of), Ultrabooks (tested several) and have owned/do own several tablets including a Galaxy Tab 2 7", a Nexus 7, the Transformer TF300T and now the TF700. You can see I've had a lot of experience with Asus products myself but I also owned and used several other brands of mobile devices; HP, Acer, Gateway and more all made products I have owned. Only Asus seems to have learned well from their experience building and supporting mobile platforms and the TF700 is, at this point, everything Netbooks wanted to be and more. The only major mobile OS I have never owned is a Chrome OS device, oddly enough. I am not a fan of relying almost entirely on a persistent Internet connection.

The Android platform is, IMO, well worth buying into, though. It seamlessly allows for your phone and tablet to sync via the Internet and Google's services work well on PCs as well. The hardware is exceptional, if you don't buy cheap crap that's poorly made. There is a use case for that, of course, but paying for he good stuff is worth it.

If I'm an Asus fanboy, it's because they make good stuff that's never once failed on me. Hell, I unboxed my R2H and literally dropped it on a concrete floor while powering it up the first time. It took that hit and still ran fine for over a year before I sold it off. Since then, I have always been more careful but still drop things once in a while.

OK, this is getting long and I hope my points come across. I'll wait for your questions, if any.

Interesting. Sometime over the last several days , Amazon's price has gone up to $437.78.

The Asus TF700 is the third most popular non-Kindle, non-Apple, over-7-inch tablet at Amazon, after the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1" and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, neither of which have the screen resolution of the Asus.

The display on the 700 really is exceptional. It also has a more rectangular aspect ratio than typical, which serves nicely in both landscape and portrait orientations. That combined with its thinness make quite a sexy thing.

The 700 and 300 came out about a year ago. That suggests their prices are due to start coming down (despite the Amazon up-blip), with used ones showing up on eBay. Or so I might think. But eBay's used prices seem to be holding up, with a fair number of used ones being sold with the kb.

As a consumer I feel like the tablet market is trying to get me to think of tablets as relatively disposable, though it's hard to say exactly why it feels like that. Being an outgrowth of the mobile phone market is no doubt part of it.

There seems to be less certainty about things like upgrades and backwards (and forward) compatibility than in Windowsland (though I can imagine that changing under the influence of the mobile market.) I've gotten the impression that Android devices can find themselves locked out of the OS's upgrade path, and for reasons other than having insufficient processing power for new upgrades -- though I'm not sure how accurate that impression is. That's what seems to have happened with my HTC Incredible.

It's interesting adopting a new platform and getting it integrated with the older one, and getting a good workflow between the two. Have to be in the mood for it, though. But so far I've found getting the Android tablets (and my phone) to see my Windows LAN has been about as easy as could have hoped for, using ES File Explorer (which needs more display/sorting/etc options.) The office-like apps I've tried don't seem able to see able to see beyond the device to the network, so I've had to open, eg, Word files, from a file manager, and also manually get them back to the desktop after saving them on the tab. It's clumsy, but I assume there is or will be some way around that. Google, or at least the device and app makers, can't make integration with Windows too easy.

That said, Google is feeling a lot more Microsoftian than Microsoft ever did.

You bet! This is a somewhat confusing, and not perfect, process. I understand quite well how much of a pain it is, having done it quite recently myself.

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Interesting. Sometime over the last several days , Amazon's price has gone up to $437.78.

Pricing on Amazon is odd sometimes, isn't it?

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The Asus TF700 is the third most popular non-Kindle, non-Apple, over-7-inch tablet at Amazon, after the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1" and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, neither of which have the screen resolution of the Asus.

Part of the reason Samsung's stuff is so damned popular is they pay for priority slotting in all the stores. It's the first thing folks tended to see and salesmen were really pushing them hard. They're not bad devices but, compared to the TF700 ...

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The display on the 700 really is exceptional. It also has a more rectangular aspect ratio than typical, which serves nicely in both landscape and portrait orientations. That combined with its thinness make quite a sexy thing.

The 700 and 300 came out about a year ago. That suggests their prices are due to start coming down (despite the Amazon up-blip), with used ones showing up on eBay. Or so I might think. But eBay's used prices seem to be holding up, with a fair number of used ones being sold with the kb.

Don't count on it. Even with the Nexus 10 having "better" resolution, the Transformers are pretty unique in the space for having the dock. It's pooh poohed by many who don't type much but, for those who do, it's perfect. Honestly, the TF700's screen, as you said, is particularly good and when the keyboard is added, it's one hell of a device.

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As a consumer I feel like the tablet market is trying to get me to think of tablets as relatively disposable, though it's hard to say exactly why it feels like that. Being an outgrowth of the mobile phone market is no doubt part of it.

It's because they want you to upgrade every 6 months, yeah. Don't buy into it. Even 7" devices aren't really quite disposable. More easily replaced, perhaps, but that's about it. Keep in mind as well that much of the tech press lives in a strange world where most folks do switch devices a hell of a lot more often than normal people so that skews perceptions when you're reading reviews and such.

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There seems to be less certainty about things like upgrades and backwards (and forward) compatibility than in Windowsland (though I can imagine that changing under the influence of the mobile market.) I've gotten the impression that Android devices can find themselves locked out of the OS's upgrade path, and for reasons other than having insufficient processing power for new upgrades -- though I'm not sure how accurate that impression is. That's what seems to have happened with my HTC Incredible.

That can be true, to an extent, yes. Asus is VERY good about pushing updates quickly. Both the TF300 and the TF700 have been updated to Jelly Bean for months. Asus has some customizations due to the keyboard and such but it's very minor and doesn't prevent them from updating quite fast. Samsung, OTOH, is pretty bad at updating due to TouchWiz.

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I've had to open, eg, Word files, from a file manager, and also manually get them back to the desktop after saving them on the tab. It's clumsy, but I assume there is or will be some way around that. Google, or at least the device and app makers, can't make integration with Windows too easy.

Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.com ... those work best. Personally I use Dropbox with Dropsync to keep them synced locally so this is much less of a pain than you've been dealing with.

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That said, Google is feeling a lot more Microsoftian than Microsoft ever did.

I've gotten the impression that Android devices can find themselves locked out of the OS's upgrade path, and for reasons other than having insufficient processing power for new upgrades -- though I'm not sure how accurate that impression is.

It's quite accurate. There's a number of devices whose upgrades were either VERY delayed or left behind altogether -- almost entirely because all resources are dedicated to the next device.

GeekGrrl wrote:

That's what seems to have happened with my HTC Incredible.

The Adreno 200 GPU in the Inc is not really strong enough to run Ice Cream Sandwich/Jelly Bean all that well. It works, but it's choppy and glitchy and not quite as nice as Gingerbread. Sure, with enough effort it might be possible to optimize the OS enough to make it smooth enough for general release, but it'd require a lot of effort. There's also the problem of the default partitioning setup being far too small for the OS -- that can be worked around, but at you're either looking at significant engineering effort to minimize the OS (which is what the remaining devs have done), or repartition the emmc (which would not only destroy all user data on the built-in storage, but reduce it in favor of the increased system and data demands, and isn't something end users can do).

All that said, there are CyanogenMod 10.1 builds for the Inc that can be workable as a daily driver.

GeekGrrl wrote:

The office-like apps I've tried don't seem able to see able to see beyond the device to the network, so I've had to open, eg, Word files, from a file manager, and also manually get them back to the desktop after saving them on the tab. It's clumsy, but I assume there is or will be some way around that.

That said, Google is feeling a lot more Microsoftian than Microsoft ever did.

How so?

I just find them to be excessively aggressive, intrusive, and paternalistic, far more so than I recall Microsoft being. The big rap on MS back in the antitrust days was that their products and services were too integrated, in ways that aided monopoly. The browser and the OS were the big issues, but IIRC Office also came under fire. In my experience, subjectively, Google's integrative instincts, methods and strategies go way beyond what Microsoft ever attempted, into wholly different realms, or in any case are more effective -- and more passively tolerated by both consumers and the industry.

I realize these dynamics flow naturally from these types of products and services, so I'm not wagging any fingers at these big bad companies. I do though expect a higher quality of service (and maybe a tiny bit more respect) in exchange for providing them strip mining rights to my data and architectural influence over my workflow.

I'll probably end up getting a TF700 and being very happy with it.

The docked keyboard doubling as a lid is a nice design. But I can imagine wanting to use the keyboard undocked from the tab. They communicate through a proprietary connector that's the same as the power adaptor connector, with a USB on the other end. I wonder if it's possible to use two of those cables with an adapter and have the kb talk to the tab without being docked. Or does Asus already make a cabl;e like that. When docked, the pair can easily be accidentally tilted back, and tapping the screen knocks it right back. I imagine the cases made for it somehow deal with that. But an un-docked keyboard-tablet connection would be very useful and enhance the combo even further.

It's easy to image accidentally damaging the thing at the docking connection. Their nice slim design makes them seem even more delicate connected.

That said, Google is feeling a lot more Microsoftian than Microsoft ever did.

How so?

I just find them to be excessively aggressive, intrusive, and paternalistic, far more so than I recall Microsoft being. The big rap on MS back in the antitrust days was that their products and services were too integrated, in ways that aided monopoly. The browser and the OS were the big issues, but IIRC Office also came under fire.

Huh ... I worked there then and it really wasn't so much paternalistic as "take it or leave it" attitudes because They Were The Man. At least from the executives anyhow.

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In my experience, subjectively, Google's integrative instincts, methods and strategies go way beyond what Microsoft ever attempted, into wholly different realms, or in any case are more effective -- and more passively tolerated by both consumers and the industry.

Sure, but we get value for that. With Microsoft, it was "Do it our way and, BTW fuck you, pay us too." With Google it's "Hey, sell us your data for these various services." At least that's the way I see it.

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I'll probably end up getting a TF700 and being very happy with it.

I'm sure you will.

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They communicate through a proprietary connector that's the same as the power adaptor connector, with a USB on the other end. I wonder if it's possible to use two of those cables with an adapter and have the kb talk to the tab without being docked.

That's a great idea. I don't know if it's possible but that would rock.

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When docked, the pair can easily be accidentally tilted back, and tapping the screen knocks it right back. I imagine the cases made for it somehow deal with that.

It is a little tippy. When typing I don't find it an issue. Cases tend to have a flap that supports it. Mini-suit makes a great one, though I don't personally care for the stylus loop.

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It's easy to image accidentally damaging the thing at the docking connection. Their nice slim design makes them seem even more delicate connected.

It's much more solid than it seems. I haven't torques it but the metal tabs also present help stabilize it quite well. Heck, I've seen full-on laptops that have less solid hinge designs.

Yeah that case looks very corporate, except for the stylus holder which looks like elementary school. MiniSuit. Will named!

What stylus would you recommend? So many I see have what look like blunt tips. Would prefer a pointy one. Too bad the screen isn't pressure sensitive.

I notice that the device is slightly thicker at the bottom (landscape mode.) And the if you pinch it just slightly, it almost feels like there's some padding there, like the casing has some give. Or is the one I have here funky?

Yeah that case looks very corporate, except for the stylus holder which looks like elementary school. MiniSuit. Will named!

Yeah, it's kind of an odd stylus holder. I had the TF300 one and its a good case, though.

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What stylus would you recommend? So many I see have what look like blunt tips. Would prefer a pointy one. Too bad the screen isn't pressure sensitive.

I haven't found a decent pointy one.

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I notice that the device is slightly thicker at the bottom (landscape mode.) And the if you pinch it just slightly, it almost feels like there's some padding there, like the casing has some give. Or is the one I have here funky?

I don't feel any padding exactly. Do you mean thicker when in the dock or out of it? Mine's a little thicker there when in the dock but still no padding.

One thing I just discovered that is not too nice is that it's not possible to use a standard USB extension cable to extend the length of the Asus power connector, which is only about 3 feet.

It DOES let you use an extension when connecting it to a PC as a media device... but it still won't charge through one. Yet the user manual indicates, or at least suggests, that it is possible to charge (very slowly) through a PC.

It's possible I'm overlooking something, and I realize that the propitiatory docking connector is under some circumstances a plus. But it seems that charging the thing is a less casual procedure than it might be.